Japan to develop long range air to surface cruise missiles

Opinion- the F-15’s unlikely renaissance

Boeing in USD 4 billion deal for F/A-18 E/F Block III

Plane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said it plans to deliver three more light combat aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF) by the end of March, taking the count of planes in the IAF’s first Tejas squadron from six to nine.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india…lr5hXaBGN.html

Can’t check the previous thread but I have a feeling HAL promised to deliver more by end of March …

Nope. They have 1 more SP to be delivered (SP-15). And they would’ve delivered 8 for the financial year ending March 2019.

SP-16 had its first flight a few days ago. Was posted on the IAF thread. SP-15 is the last single seat IOC fighter left to fly and it should fly before March 2019. When delivered, the No.45 Squadron will be at full strength, minus the conversion trainers.

HAL’s unmanned wingman concept will be powered by the indigenous PTAE7 turbojet engine, used on the Lakshya pilotless target vehicle.

The CAG report points out issues with the tender process, perhaps they should look at the whole need for the tender process in certain situations when they have a suitable product in mind that fills a pressing operational need.

1. If the IAF outlined the need for a “Chinook class of helicopter”, then streamline a procedure to acquire them without a competition. What isn’t mentioned, why did the IAF structure the requirements for the Chinook? There must have been a less than satisfactory operational experience with the Mi-26.

Because the Mi-26s were unreliable and pretty much hangar queens. The down time was far too great to use them widely. Plus, the fleet size was too small to have any sort of operational support feasible within the country. That in turn meant that they needed Soviet and Russian assistance to keep them flying and with that being rather spotty, the fleet was on the ground most of the time.

Add to this the fact that for most missions, the Mi-26’s size was overkill. They needed a smaller “heavy” helicopter that was available at least 60-70% of the time, with modern avionics to allow more missions that were not possible with the Mi-26.

2. The original single vendor proposal for MMRCA would have given the IAF Mirage 2000 aircraft over a decade sooner than the mulit-vendor process that ended up being largely a failure. Again, the IAF had already identified the product they had in mind to fill the requirement. Making it a multi-vendor competition due to the Defense Procurement Proceedure policy stalled the process.

Sadly, most IAF enthusiasts are aware of this debacle. The Mirage-2000-Mk2 with some more technology insertions would’ve provided a credible medium weight single engine fighter out to the 2040s.

Anyway, that is what the Medium Weight Fighter is now aimed at giving the IAF, but one updated with technologies that the Mirage-2000-Mk2 didn’t feature. Basically the MWF gives the IAF the freedom to give requirements to design an indigenised and modernised Mirage-2000 equivalent weight class fighter that the IAF can use for the next 35 years.

Now that the IAF has actual experience with the Tejas Mk1, knows just how good it is and it’s proven the capabilities of indigenous teams, the IAF is much more amenable to fully backing the MWF from the start, staking its future medium weight single engine fighter force to an indigenous program. Far more likely to yield results than waiting for politicians and bureaucrats to get their act together and give the IAF an imported licence built option.

Another lost opportunity, just unbelievable there was no alternative for streamlined procurement as an exception to DPP.

It has to be looked at, but the issue was that when this was introduced, the fear was that non competitive deals could be driven by corruption. Which wasn’t an unfounded fear, given the previous track record.

Considering one of the failed performance parameters for the F-16 was sustained turn requirements due to refusal to allow it to be tested without the conformal tanks, one has to ask why they held the exhaustive trials in the first place.

If the F-16 had to be stripped of its CFTs (which is not as easy as taking off a drop tank on the ground) and definitely not feasible when in the air, unlike jettisoning drop tanks, then the IAF was well within its right to deny the F-16 the right to take those CFTs off. Basically, a CFT equipped F-16 (which is pretty much de-facto for most late model F-16s) would not meet the IAF’s sustained turn requirements, as set in the MRCA competition.

One has to wonder how these admissions will impact vendors (especially Eurofighter consortium nations) future responses to Indian RFI.

I sincerely hope they don’t bother to respond. 🙂

Saves them time/money and we have one less vendor that the IAF has to basically eliminate. Plus, we get rid of one vendor that was looking to back room channels and bribery to try and swing the MRCA deal in its favor. Arms dealer Christen Michel and Sanjay Bhandari’s links to Eurofighter and to Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are already established and there was a concerted effort to derail the Rafale deal through back channels, one of the reasons that the previous UPA Govt. in India never finalised the Rafale deal.

And more to the point- the Eurofighter is not yet as capable as the Rafale, nor is it cheaper than the Rafale..so it makes much more sense that if an expensive jet can be procured then it should be more of the Rafale.

Dr. Girish Deodhare’s interview with AeroMag, Feb 2019 issue. He is the Aeronautical Development Agency Director.

Major points:

– Major weapons detachment near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, in November-December 2018, where over 300 bombs were dropped over a 100 sorties.
– Aerial refueling trials done at different altitudes
– Software updates on the basis of those trials are in progress
– Confirmation of Astra BVRAAM and Brahmos NG integration being planned
– Integration of the indigenous LRDE Uttam AESA on Tejas prototypes progressing
– ADA supporting HAL for Mk1A Avionics and FCS upgrades
– Twin seater probe not identical to the single seater probe and design mods are on for the trainer to incorporate it
– Production Standard drawings for the trainer will be released by June 2019. Trainer production can begin after that
– LCA Navy Mk2 design completed and aircraft is being realised. Should be ready in 18 months (~Aug 2020)
– Major part of the AMCA design is done
– AMCA configuration is finalised, based on IAF requirements
– Higher thrust engine required for AMCA which is not available currently
– Going ahead with the F-414 as interim engine for the AMCA
– AMCA design project has been sanctioned and within 7 years the AMCA should be completed, with GE F-414 right up to certification, including the stealth part. It will be subsequently up-scaled with the higher thrust engine
– Air Force Tejas Mk2 MWF design completed

F110 and F100, with mass airflow of 270 lbm/sec, are an entirely different class from F414 with airflow of 170 lbm/sec. That is why two F414s are needed to provide the same thrust performance as one F110 or F100. F110 and F100 are larger in diameter, longer and weigh more. Larger inlets and fuselage would need to be scaled up to fit F110 or F100. This cascades to the need for a larger wing, larger control surfaces, larger landing gear/brakes and more fuel, hydraulic and electric power. If everything else is scaled up, you might as well incorporate larger, better performing sensors and more weapons. You pretty much throw Mk2 away and start design all over.

Precisely what I was getting at. The F110 or F100 or Al-31 or whatever larger engine some or the other user keeps suggesting is simply not feasible. Those suggesting it are simply not aware of the scale of the effort that would be required to shoe-horn such large engines into smallish airframes.

Which is why both the Gripen NG and the Tejas Mk2 program chose to go with an evolutionary incremental approach, whereby a larger, heavier fighter was designed FROM a lighter fighter. The F-414 itself required fuselage changes, intake diameter had to be increased, the electrical systems had to be re-designed.

The IAF has always wanted a Mirage-2000 class aircraft and the Medium Weight Fighter design is aimed squarely at that class of jets.